Nine of the bugs are rated critical, while eight are important. One of the “important” bulletins includes 30 vulnerabilities in one bug, MS11-034, and they all share the same couple of root causes, Microsoft said.

Microsoft identified three vulnerabilities as its top priority bulletins for the month: MS11-020, which resolves a problem with Windows that could allow remote code execution if an attacker created a specially crafted SMB packet and sent the packet to an affected system; MS11-019, another Windows bug that could allow remote code execution if an attacker sent a specially crafted SMB response to a client-initiated SMB request; and MS11-018, which could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer.

Microsoft has shipped a patch for to fix several critical security holes affecting its Office productivity suite and warned that hackers can use RTF (Rich Text Format) e-mails to launch code execution attacks.

The MS10-087 bulletin, which is considered a high-priority update, patches a total of 5 documented vulnerabilities affecting all currently supported Microsoft Office products.

It is rated critical for Office 2007 and Office 2010 because of a preview pane vector in Microsoft Outlook that could trigger the vulnerability when a customer views a specially crafted malicious RTF file, the company explained.

Microsoft urges Office users to consider this a “top priority bulletin” and warned that reliable exploit code is likely within the next 30 days.

As part of the November Patch Tuesday release, the company also patched a pair of security flaws in Microsoft PowerPoint and four documented flaws in Unified Access Gateway (UAG), which is a component of Microsoft Forefront.

Run Windows? Notice a little icon toward the bottom right of the screen that wasn’t there last night? Please don’t ignore it. That icon is your cue to take part in the monthly Microsoft ritual called Patch Tuesday.

Many of these holes allow a remote takeover of your computer, in some cases after you do nothing wrong beside visit the wrong Web page. One such opening has frequently been exploited by the Stuxnet worm that’s been running around the world.

Your computer should at least download, if not download and install, these updates for you. But if not, don’t reject Windows’ attempt to help you out. Click that icon, look over the resulting list of security updates, and install them.

Iran has confirmed that more than 30,000 PCs have been infected by the Stuxnet worm in that country, including some at the Bushehr nuclear power plant. The nature of the Stuxnet worm and the infiltration of Iranian nuclear facilities has led to speculation about whether the worm was developed by the United States or its allies expressly for that purpose.

The Pentagon response to the implication is the standard cagey reply given for just about anything related to national security or military engagements. Fox News reports that, “Pentagon Spokesman Col. David Lapan said Monday the Department of Defense can “neither confirm nor deny” reports that it launched this attack.”

McAfee AVERT Labs has a thorough analysis of the Stuxnet worm which explains the threat in detail. “Stuxnet is a highly complex virus targeting Siemens’ SCADA software. The threat exploits a previously unpatched vulnerability in Siemens SIMATIC WinCC/STEP 7 (CVE-2010-2772) and four vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows, two of which have been patched at this time (CVE-2010-2568, CVE-2010-2729). It also utilizes a rootkit to conceal its presence, as well as 2 different stolen digital certificates.”

Another interesting tidbit from McAfee supporting the speculation that Iran may have been the intended target of Stuxnet is that the initial discovery seemed to be primarily focused in the Middle East.

Speaking on the subject of whether the threat may have been specifically crafted for Iran, Randy Abrams, director of technical education at ESET said, “It appears that it is possible that Stuxnet may have been responsible for problems in Iran’s nuclear program over the past year, however that is speculation and it is unlikely that the Iranian government is going to say if that was the case. It is even possible that it was the case and they don’t know it.”

Abrams added, “It is entirely possible that Stuxnet was created by the United States working alone or in conjunction with allies. The fact that it is possible does not indicate it is true however. There have been a number of recent defections in Iran. It is also possible that this was an internal attack. There is still a legitimate question as to whether or not Iran was actually the target.”

Well, diplomacy sure as hell isn’t working and no one really wants to launch airstrikes against the Iranian nuclear facilities, especially fraidy cat Obama. So, maybe this is a third option, use the Iranians’ own computers to remotely destroy their nuclear related equipment, perfect, if it actually works. I know I’ve got my fingers crossed. Go U.S. or go Israel or go whoever is responsible for this brilliant plan!

Microsoft should just hire some of these hackers to code their software in the first place so they wouldn’t have to try and fix it every few weeks. It’d be cheaper and less of a hassle for everyone involved. Here’s the latest futile attempt at patching Windows.

According to the advisory, four security bulletins were marked as critical, out which, MS10-061 and MS10-062 ran the greatest risk of being exploited in the wild.

MS10-061 addressed a vulnerability in the Printer Spooler service, which could allow remote code execution from a malicious print request, tech news site eWeek reports.

The other critical vulnerability most likely to be exploited in the wild, MS10-062, could allow remote code execution by exploiting a vulnerability found in the way in which MPEG-4 codec dealt with media files.

As previously reported, eight of the bulletins are rated “critical” because of the risk of remote code execution attacks. The other six are rated “important.”

The company also released a security advisory to warn of a new elevation of privilege issue in the Windows Service Isolation feature.

Windows users are urged to pay special attention to these four bulletins:

MS10-052 resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft’s MPEG Layer-3 audio codecs. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted media file or receives specially crafted streaming content from a Web site. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the logged on user.

MS10-055 resolves a privately reported vulnerability in the Cinepak codec that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted media file, or receives specially crafted streaming content from a Web. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the logged on user.

MS10-056 resolves four privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office. The most severe vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens or previews a specially crafted RTF e-mail message. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Windows Vista and Windows 7 are less exploitable due to additional heap mitigation mechanisms in those operating systems.

MS10-060 resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities, both of which could allow remote code execution, in Microsoft .NET Framework and Microsoft Silverlight.

As Computerworld’s Gregg Keizer points out, the August update was the biggest ever by number of security bulletins, and equaled the single-month record for individual patches.

Microsoft today rushed out an emergency patch for Windows Vista and Windows 7 PCs just eight days before its next Patch Tuesday.

The software giant issues security patches on the second Tuesday of each month, and only rarely issues so-called out-of-band patches. The company has never issued an emergency patch this close to Patch Tuesday, says Jason Miller, data and security team leader at patch management firm, Shavlik Technologies.

“Coming out with this patch this close to a Patch Tuesday is severe,” says Miller. “People should be paying attention to this one, and patch as soon as possible.”

Importantly, the emergency patch does nothing for hundreds of millions of PCs running Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2000, since Microsoft last month stopped issuing security updates for those older versions of its flagship operating system. The company continues to urge Windows XP SP2 users, in particular, to upgrade to Windows XP SP3, which will continue to get security updates, or to buy new Windows 7 PCs.

Update: To be clear, this patch will work on Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2003 SP2; Windows Vista, Window Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2. It will not work on Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2000.

At the Black Hat and Def Con security conferences in Las Vegas last week, attendees referred to this Windows flaw as a $1 million vulnerability. Savvy hackers can tweak a basic component of all versions of Windows, called LNK. This is the simple coding that enables shortcut program icons to appear on your desktop.

No one in the legit world knew the LNK flaw existed until mid July, when security blogger Brian Krebs began reporting on a sophisticated worm spreading via USB thumb drives. That worm, known has Stuxnet, took advantage of the newly-discovered flaw to run a malicious program designed specifically to breach Siemens SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) software systems. Over a period of months the attackers had infected Siemens SCADA controls in power plants and factories in Iran, Indonesia, India and some Middle East nations, according to antivirus firm Symantec.